Kansas City Royals to sign Ian Kennedy to five-year deal

The Kansas City Royals have agreed to terms with starting pitcher Ian Kennedy on a five-year, $70 million deal, according to MLB Network insider Jon Heyman. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick also reports that Kennedy can opt-out after the second year.

The contract details are somewhat surprising for the historically frugal Royals. However, it appears the defending World Series champions are set on keeping their roster competitive in 2016, as they also handed out a long-term commitment to retain left fielder Alex Gordon recently.

The addition of Kennedy is not particularly confidence-inspiring in terms of improving the Royals rotation, though. The right-hander hasn’t posted an ERA+ over 100 since the 2012 season with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Kennedy’s best campaign by far came in 2011, when he went 21-4 for the D’backs to the tune of a 2.88 ERA, placing fourth in the NL Cy Young race. Since then he’s been a far more ordinary pitcher, manufacturing a 4.19 ERA (89 ERA+) from 2012 to 2015 with Arizona and the San Diego Padres.

There are several reasons to think the 31-year-old former Yankees farm hand could find success in Kansas City, however. The Royals captured the World Series title last year without the luxury of a great starting rotation. Backed by KC’s resilient offense, a 4.00 ERA or something thereabouts from Kennedy could be an adequate mark.

Kennedy has also been quite durable throughout his career. He has made at least 30 starts in each of the past six seasons and eclipsed 180 innings in five of the last six. At the very least, Kennedy should be able to eat innings for the defending champs in a rotation that also figures to include Edinson Volquez, Yordano Ventura, Chris Young and Danny Duffy.

Of course, the Royals’ dominant bullpen should also be a major help to Kennedy and the other Kansas City starters.

Kennedy has had trouble with home runs, allowing 1.7 long balls per nine innings in 2015, but the confines of Kauffman Stadium (79.3 homers per 100 last year) should mitigate that tendency. However, he has been able to boost his strikeout numbers recently, posting a 9.3 K/9 rate in each of the last two years.

If Kennedy fares well enough in the first two seasons of the deal and becomes a free agent again after 2017, the Royals likely won’t complain. But if he sees out all five years of the contract, it could very well feel like more of burden toward the end.

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Still, you pretty much know what you’re getting in a pitcher like Kennedy, and Kansas City is probably as good a situation as he could hope for in terms of his skill set.